Issue 6.0 Autumn Term 2021
FEATURING: Music in ITT - Exploring Romantic Music - Cabinet Reshuffle - Starting and promoting a YouTube channel - Resource Reviews - Knowledge-Rich Music Whole Class Instrumental Teaching - Musical Progress - AND MUCH MORE!
Gone Gibb What’s next for Music Education in England?
Dr Liz Stafford considers how the departure of a key minister from the Department for Education may affect music education. I feel sorry for Nick Gibb MP, I genuinely do. I too have once suffered the ignominy of being sacked for no good reason by someone who was manifestly less successful at his own job than I was at mine. It is not a great feeling, especially when you have poured your heart, soul, and commitment into a job that has become a passion project, as Gibb’s clearly had. I also, however, feel a bit relieved for all of us in music education. No-one could fault Nick Gibb’s commitment to the betterment of education. But unfortunately his ideas on what would make music education better seem to have left a lot to be desired. Often quoted in the press extolling the virtues of listening to, reading and writing music, Gibb’s views were a world away from what we know to be effective and engaging practice in primary music.
Under Gibb’s stewardship we saw the introduction of initiatives such as The Music Commission, Classical 100, the Model Music Curriculum, and the beginning of the ‘refreshing’ process for the National Plan for Music Education. To say this is a mixed bag in terms of success is an understatement! The underpinning current under all of these however was a march towards the classicalisation of music at primary school, with familiarity with the western classical musical communication system (staff notation) and the European classical canon seeming to be the main aims.
Of course we as music teachers know that what children need is a diverse musical curriculum with plenty of practical music-making opportunities across a wide range of styles, genres and traditions. We also know that this approach is enshrined in our national curriculum, which after all is the
only statutory advice that we have ever been obliged to follow.
With the departure of Nick Gibb, will we see the DfE distance themselves from the narrow and much-maligned Model Music Curriculum? Will we see the National Plan for Music Education once again become an holistic vision for music education rather than - as it seemed to be being set up to
be - a promotional tool for the Model Music Curriculum? Will we see music fall off the DfE’s radar altogether - and would this necessarily be a bad thing? Only time will tell…
Bringing a world
We landed at Marrakech and took the taxi across town to our accommodation. Im
people dressed, the different driving style, the red sandstone buildings, the stalls
heat was all consuming. Then there were the smells of the spices, the iridescent g
got lost amongst the maze of tiny lanes in the souks. We paused for a Moroccan
the humidity before we found what I’d been looking for – a stall that sold trad
quality qraqeb cymbals. The stall holder kindly gave me a short lesson and expl
was also part of his sales technique to ensure I’d buy them. After a short hagg
qraqeb and placed them in my rucksack. The whole experience made the musi
cymbals echoed the constant hum of bustle within the souk, the warmth of the around brought the music to life. I began to think how I could best convey this
couple of years and with the help of a global pandemic, the result was the creatio
d of music to life
mmediately we noticed everything that was different to our own culture; the way
s selling exotic looking fruit at the side of the road and the heat, wow, the 40c dry
golden lamps piled high, and the noisy banter of the market stall holders as we
n tea in a dark and cool tearoom in the middle of the souk for some respite from
ditional Moroccan percussion instruments. I was determined to find some good
lained how and why they play qraqeb in Moroccan folk music, which I suppose
gling on price which the stall holder seemed to thoroughly enjoy, I bought the
ic make so much more sense; I could hear how the sounds of these small hand
e metal cymbals in my hands in the humid souks and the smells of the spices all Moroccan music and experience in the classroom back home in the UK. After a
on of Inspire-Works Studios.
Over the past 18 years, Inspire-Works facilitators have lead global arts workshops to over 1 million children in schools throughout the UK. One issue has always been how to convey the cultural background of a genre of music in the classroom effectively. It’s one thing to teach children how to play a rhythm from Senegal on a djembe, but we’d always struggled to effectively communicate to the children what Senegal looks like, sounds like, feels like, how they dress, what they eat, what is important to the
Senegalese and why; all of which ultimately has affected how their musical culture has developed and what their music sounds like. In March 2020 when school buildings closed, our workshops business effectively ground to a halt, and we had to immediately think about how we could work if we were not allowed to visit schools. We already had an Online Learning Platform on our website that had been gradually gaining
recognition and won an award at the Primary Music Magazine Awards, but it had always been a small part of the business. However, we knew that online resources would have to become our primary focus and we started to look at how video tuition could be seen as an advantage, not as a hindrance or poor substitute for face-to-face workshops in the classroom. We started to brainstorm what is possible to do via video
tuition that isn’t possible to do in the classroom, particularly in relation to teaching music from another culture. This is where our idea of creating a resource that is a hybrid of a National Geographic-style documentary and a conventional Inspire-Works workshop came from and we created a new word for it – a docu-workshop! Inspired by the films we’d watched during lockdown on Amazon Studios, BBC Studios and Warner Studios,
we decided to create a completely new area of our business to house these
resources called Inspire-Works Studios. We wanted to use these resources to share about the diverse cultures that our 18 facilitators from 11 different countries come from, with the aim of the children learning about another way of life by seeing the music performed in the home cultures of the facilitators, appreciating the traditional heritages, and joining in with the workshop aspects of each film.
We launched Inspire-Works Studios in autumn 2021 with four docu-workshops, each film focusing on a different genre of music. They are each led by an Inspire-Works facilitator who is a specialist in the culture demonstrating how to play the musical instruments and sharing the importance of the music within the traditions of the society. Accompanied by beautiful scenic shots, the material comprises of layers
of musical complexity, making the films appropriate for children from 5 to 18 years old, who can join in with the music-making on whatever instruments they have available.
Inspire-works Studios A range of films focusing on different genres of music led by specialist musicians, highlighting the importance of music within the culture from which it comes.
These Videos On Demand, designed for whole-class school use, are supported by differentiated lesson plan downloads, assessment templates and guidance on how to use these resources with Arts Award Discover and Arts Award Bronze qualifications.
The first four docu-workshop films released in Autumn 2021 are:
West African drumming with Mohamed Gueye, a Griot from Senegal. In this film Mohamed teaches how to play the djembe and dunun drums, describing why and when the music is played in this rich heritage, and guides the viewer through scenic shots of Senegal’s capital city, Dakar, Mohamed’s home town.
Gamelan with Tjokorda Raka Suastika, a prince in the Ubud Royal Family in Bali, Indonesia. Tjokorda Raka is a master musical director in Bali and has founded several award-winning gamelan groups for adults and children. In this beautiful film with panoramic shots of Balinese rice terraces, beaches, and volcanoes, Tjokorda Raka demonstrates how to play each instrument found in a Balinese gamelan orchestra and shares
how important music and dance are to the unique Balinese way of life and culture.
South African gumboot dance with Lucky Moyo from Soweto, South Africa. In this film Lucky teaches from his vast experience as a gumboot dancer and singer as a founding member of Black Umfolosi who have
performed to Nelson Mandela. Surrounded by shots of Soweto, he shares
the background to South African gumboot dance and why this is a culturally important artform.
Brazilian samba drumming with Raul d’Oliveira. As a multiinstrumentalist Raul’s musical experience is outstanding having performed with samba schools in Rio de Janeiro, on all international tours with Wham and Elton John and appearing regularly on MTV. In this
film Raul demonstrates classic Rio-style samba patterns for all the instruments commonly found in the Rio samba school performances at the Rio Carnival.
In time we will add more docu-workshops to Inspire-Works Studios and look forward to using continue to use 2021 technology to convey centuries
old cultures from around the world to children all over the world.
LEARNING IN LOCKDOWN: PART THREE
Bev Cullen is a self-employed music teacher at two SEND primary schools. In the third of a series of articles she shares her journey towards providing suitable online music teaching and resources for her pupils.
Since the start of Lockdown, I had been sharing my videos, only with parents and pupils at the two schools that I worked with. I was getting positive feedback from parents about their child’s responses to the Signed Song Videos – especially songs they recognised. I realised what a positive impact my videos were having and wondered how I could make my videos accessible for others to benefit from.
If ever I am looking for a song, an activity or an idea, I turn to YouTube and assumed that many others do too. This provided me with my next challenge….
How to set up a YouTube Channel I posed the question to Google, which gave me mounds of information to read and videos to watch. As I sifted through the information, it was easier than I realised:
Set up a Google account
Sign into YouTube using that account
Click the profile picture > Create a channel
I began by uploading some instrument activities, sensory songs and signed songs that I had previously filmed by clicking on the Create button, and then on Upload Videos. Once I had done this I was taken to a series of pages to complete.
Page 1 – Details The title is automatically the same as your video name. You can change it. I would add who the song was by. Description is to give more general information. I would include the age range and/or specific need I had intended the song for. Sometimes this would be information for parents if it was an activity for them to do with their child. Thumbnail - three images are automatically selected from your video. Choose the one that you think gives the best impression of your video as viewers search through. Playlists - I initially didn’t use this option, but quickly saw the benefits of categorising my videos into playlists e.g. Signed Songs; Sensory Songs; Instrument Activities. (As I have continued to film and upload videos, there
are now 16 different playlists). Videos can be assigned to more than one playlist to help viewers find what they need. ‘Hickory Dickory Dock’ is in both the ‘Signed Songs’ and ‘Counting’ playlists. Audience - select if the video is Made for Kids or not. If you are not certain, there are Learn more links to click for explanations. Most of my videos are ‘Made for Kids’ as they are designed for them to join in with and learn the Makaton signs from. The benefit of selecting Made for Kids is that adverts and notifications aren’t available, and you are more likely to get recommendations alongside other similar videos. There is also a Show more link that I didn’t initially use. This covers things such as tags, subtitles, recording date and location. I didn’t find that these
were relevant when I first began.
Page 2 – Video Elements This is where Subtitles can be added. I have not yet chosen this option as I often include key Makaton symbols as well as the signs. I have only just begun to Add an end screen which will take viewers to other videos on my channel and to encourage them to subscribe so they will see future uploads.
Page 3 – Checks You will automatically notified if any copyright issues are found. I always give credit to artists, song writers, composers and publishers in my Description. The only time I have received a notification is when I used an instrumental backing of ‘Baby Shark’.
Page 4 – Visibility Here you choose who can view your videos and when they will be released. Most of mine are Public so anyone can watch them. Some are
Unlisted
e.g.
lessons for schools – only those with a link can view them.
Once I’d got my YouTube channel up and running, I realised that no-one knew it existed and that I needed to find a way to publicise it. This led me to find out...
How do I use social media to promote my YouTube Channel? I had an existing LinkedIn account that I began to use more, and also decided to set up a Facebook page in my name. I quickly began searching for friends and colleagues that I knew would be interested in my channel and would be happy to share it with others for me. This resulted in me getting many ‘friend’ requests from people that I didn’t know. I noticed that there are some Facebook pages that I ‘like and follow’ rather than being ‘friends’ with. This got me thinking about how to set up a Facebook business page. I turned to my good friend Google once more to get the following information:
Click the drop-down arrow on the toolbar, then select Create Page. (Currently you need to click on the + button instead!) Choose either Business or Brand or Community or Public Figure as your Page category. Enter a Page Name and Category, then click Continue. Upload a profile picture and a cover photo for your Page. The Facebook page will appear.
Now I am able choose what I share on my personal profile and what goes on my Business Page. If you are interested, I can be found at: YouTube: BC Music Specialist Music Teacher Facebook: BC Music LinkedIn: Bev Cullen – Specialist Music Teacher at BC Music
Please join me next term for the final part of ‘Learning in Lockdown’ I’ll tell you about how I learnt to provide remote live lessons from home to pupils in school and at home as the number of Covid cases escalated and we needed to isolate and keep bubbles as safe as possible.
Bev Cullen is a self-employed Specialist Music Teacher, Musician (main instrument Percussion) and Makaton Tutor. She is one of the first nine Tutors trained to deliver the 'Using Makaton with Singing' pack. She is a strong believer that combining Makaton and Music is a powerful tool in helping develop communication skills. She has experience of working with children from 6 months - 18 years, in mainstream education, special needs and community settings. She has worked as both a curriculum and instrumental teacher and has delivered 'STOMP -style' workshops. She also delivers workshops and training to teachers.
As a musician she is classically trained, and has spent many years playing with Brass Bands, Orchestras, Jazz Orchestras and Musical Theatre Groups. She can now regularly be found supporting Guitarist, Singer/ Songwriter Joe Bayliss.
Attend the national Curriculum Music Conference LIVE in Birmingham on Friday 18th March 2022, or watch online up to 7 days after the event! Tickets and information: Curriculum Music Conference - Music Education (musiceducationsolutions.co.uk)
Inspire to inspire Janet Limburg discusses why music at Initial Teacher Training level has never been more important
Inspire to Inspire Janet Limburg discusses why music at Initial Teacher Training level has never been more important.
It has never been more obvious how important our teachers are. How important it is for them to be the best they can be in meeting both the needs of their school and children, whilst maintaining their own positive mental health and love of teaching. Fine-tuning programmes and equipping teachers well in their initial training is key in helping them hit the ground running with confidence.
Becoming a primary school teacher has always entailed great challenges, requiring knowledge across a broad area of subjects, as well as the pedagogical and holistic understanding of how children learn. Initial Teacher Training (ITT) is the first step on the journey to becoming a teacher, and it is during this time that the foundations of good teaching and learning can be set and seeds can be sown for a trainee to flourish into a gifted teacher. However, as it is such an important period of development, it can also be a time when habits become established that make up that teacher’s classroom practice for the whole future of their teaching career. That’s why equipping trainees in those formative years is so important to the culture of any school.
Over the six years as the ITT lead at Somerset SCITT, I’ve seen the impact a firmly-embedded music culture can have in schools, the importance of inspiring our teachers in turn to inspire their pupils through music. Recently I have been able to take this further and fully integrate music across our SCITT programme thanks to an initiative created by Out of the Ark Music. Music can often feel like a challenge to many class teachers
and can seem like just another subject to understand in an already very busy schedule, but I know it to be a tool that can help trainees teach the whole curriculum – as well as improve children’s mental health, love of learning and social skills.
The pandemic has, of course, had a huge impact on teachers and pupils alike, and it saddens me to know a recent report from the Children's Society found that 75% of young people struggling with their mental health aren't getting the help they need. With an emerging ‘mental health crisis’, our current trainees are constantly confronted with the need to recover skills and learning that have been compromised over the last year, and I believe a properly integrated music culture is part of the answer here.
In 2017, Out of the Ark Music approached Professor Susan Hallam MBE to collaborate on a research project that identified the benefits of integrating music and singing in the classroom and across the curriculum. From the 300 primary school teachers and 9,000 students surveyed, the report found an increase in student confidence, self-esteem, cooperation with other children and improvement of mood – it’s official, singing children are happier children and this is something I know from my own experience. I’ve got such fond memories of taking my class from the classroom to the hall, singing a song about being a train. I just remember the joy we all felt in doing something together, the children all laughing as we went, they were all enjoying being at school.
The latest Government Covid-19 Mental Health and Wellbeing Surveillance Report found significant evidence that ‘particularly in primary school children, return to school in September 2020 has had a positive impact on some children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing’ – what aspirational news for trainee teachers! We need to continue this momentum and create, along with the recovery curriculum, a rekindling of a love of learning, and being part of a community. Our ITT curriculum recognises that teachers are facing huge pressures as we recover from Covid, and, reflecting on Professor Hallam’s research, we know the importance of supporting our trainees not just to be more confident singing songs together because it’s a fun activity, but because it is key in reigniting joy in learning in their pupils. With more and more research coming through regarding cognitive load – recognising intrinsic load (unnecessary information) and extraneous load (distractions) – music and singing are tools that can really help focus on germane load (essential information), and improve children’s memory for information. Using a song in history to remember dates, or in numeracy to help remember number bonds, can be a powerful tool for a teacher. Singing cuts through distraction and highlights the important details and if learning is fun, children engage, and if they engage – they’ll remember. Professor Hallam’s report also found an 11.3% increase in maths performance and 10% increase in phonics, listening and reading skills post implementation of the Out of the Ark project. Being close to the chalk face, we know lot of teachers still think that using
music is about singing in front of their classes and requires both a good voice and previous music knowledge. Consequently, many trainees currently experience very little music in schools, and are not always able to observe music being used by class teachers, as it is so often left to peripatetic teachers to cover PPA time. Trainees need to be able to take what they are learning in training sessions, and see it modelled in the classroom, and then have opportunity to practise it for themselves – only then will they be able to develop their own practice and have the confidence to implement it consistently. It was refreshing when, in 2017, our wonderful music trainer at SCITT, Nikki Hewson, introduced me to Out of the Ark Music and shared with me their vision for making music an intrinsic and fully-integrated part of provision across the ITT program. Nikki now spends two full days with our trainees on embedding music in the classroom, and as Nikki is also a class teacher, trainees get the chance to observe her deliver a lesson with music, see music used in action and then work themselves with the children in small groups, trying out ideas from the training session. We’re hoping that the work we’re doing on this programme, constructed and resourced by Out of the Ark, will help all our trainees’ fears, and give them the confidence to harness the incredible power of music as a tool in their classrooms. Thankfully, Ofsted have also become aware that the temptation of focusing on a recovery curriculum that emphasises ‘core subject repair’, and trades off music, singing and other broader subjects, loses an
essential fixture of the everyday primary school experience. The new Ofsted framework is expecting ITT providers, like schools to teach a broad curriculum. Their new implemented framework now encourages providers to go beyond the statutory minimum curriculum entitlement, having found ‘only a minority of partnerships could demonstrate that they had incorporated trainees' statutory minimum curriculum entitlement into their plans, and very few had gone beyond it.’ Additionally, ITT providers under the new Ofsted framework are having to identify not just how they help to create outstanding trainees or newly qualified teachers, but also what is ambitious about what they do. In Somerset our ambition is to inspire and empower and equip trainees to integrate music into daily classroom practice and the wider school, because we know the impact music can make to a post-pandemic classroom will be vital, covering much-needed added support to help with socialisation and mental health, to reengage students with the curriculum. The hands-on training we’ve been able to offer focusses on fully integrating music across the whole primary curriculum, covering areas as wide as using music to support maths and phonics and literacy development, and supporting SEND. For us, the training and resources offered by Out of the Ark help us both teach the national curriculum and meet the requirements for a rich curriculum offering stipulated by the new Ofsted framework. Songs can both help in the recovery curriculum, and also support children in the recovery of social skills, emotional literacy and mental health. And it’s our teacher trainees, our Early Career Teachers and our class teachers that will be responsible for bringing music and a love of learning back into the classroom.
ITT is an action-packed programme – whether one year or three years – but it’s a crucial time to develop good habits and begin to apply them to their classroom practice. It’s our job as trainers to let them know what resources are available to them and give them courage to see music as a crosscurricular tool that they can use to aid in core subject repair.
Janet Limberg is the programme manager both for Somerset SCITT and under-graduate programmes (Foundation Programme for Teaching and Learning and Foundation degree for Learning and Development from EY to Adolescence), and has had had an extensive career in education, including Headteacher, teacher, local authority adviser, lecturer and education consultant.
Understanding Kn
In England, at least, there has been a lot of discussion of late about ‘knowledg knowledge organisers to show what ‘facts’ pupils are learning in music. However,
be memorised. Music education theorists have always talked about different types Knowledge about music - facts
Knowledge how
This understanding of musical knowledge allows us to emphasise the practical na
to learn a series of carefully structured facts. Fortunately, Ofsted recently reinforc
Review (published in July 2021) which identified broadly the same three types of k Declarative knowledge - facts
Procedural Kno
This recognition from Ofsted is great news for teachers, as it allows us to follow t
on providing practical musical experiences to develop pupils’ knowledge how and
might help them to understand music better. The days of the music knowledge or
nowledge in Music
ge rich’ curriculum, with schools scrambling to create key vocabulary lists and the definition of knowledge in music is much broader than just the facts that can
s of musical knowledge - the most frequently cited model being the following:
ow to music - skills
Knowledge of music - experiential
ature of music, and come away from the idea that the only way to show progress is
ced this way of thinking about knowledge in their recent Music Subject Research
knowledge but named them differently:
owledge - skills
Tacit knowledge - experiential
the pedagogy that we know to be correct for the teaching of music! We can focus
d of music, and pepper these where appropriate with the factual knowledge that
rganiser may be numbered...
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Overblown Romantics Explore the most evocative period of European musical history with your class!
The ‘Romantic’ period of European musical history ran from roughly 1830 to around 1900. Music of this period is characterised by powerful, emotive expression, and many of the era’s composers fit the description of the
‘tortured artist’ whose innermost demons can only be exorcised through music! This period saw the introduction of orchestral ‘programme music’ - music which was designed to tell a particular story, and hand in hand with this went the expansion of the orchestra to include more of every instrument and a few new ones besides! This resulted in works of extreme passion and drama, often using themes such as dreams and nightmares, mythology and legend, magic and the supernatural, and, of course, love! Music during this time period was very lyrical, with long sustained melodies, often returned to and developed several times within one piece of music. Composers had complete freedom to structure their music however they wished, resulting in a variety of disparate styles and genres developing during this period.
Hector Berlioz French composer Hector Berlioz is most well known for his epic orchestral work Symphonic Fantastique. One of the first examples of ‘programme music’ it tells the story of an artist’s obsession with the woman of his dreams - she is represented by a repeating tune known as an ‘idee fixe’ which appears in all five movements. Each movement represents a different part of the story - a dream, a ball, the countryside, an execution (probably not best shared with primary children!) and a witches’ sabbath. This piece could inspire your own programmatic music, and with older children the creation of your own ‘idee fixe’ to hold the different sections of the story together.
Richard Wagner This German composer is mainly known for writing some of the longest operas ever produced, and is definitely somewhat of a Marmite figure! If you play your class ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ be prepared for them to get very excited very quickly - and also be ready to talk about the instrumentation typical of the romantic style - which more often than not was basically as many instruments as they could fit onto the stage with lots of crashy percussion thrown in for good measure.
Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn Brother and sister Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn shared a love of music, although as a man Felix had more opportunity to pursue his passion, and even passed off some of his sister’s compositions as his own - one hopes with good intentions! The Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream is probably his most famous work, and one that your pupils are likely to recognise, but perhaps his most useful work for primary teachers’ purposes is The Hebrides Overture which is an incredibly evocative portrayal of the sea. This could provide inspiration for creating, selecting and combining, different timbres at KS1, or for more extensive compositional work at KS2. You could also compare and contrast this overture with Fanny Mendelssohn’s Overture in C and discuss the difference between a programmatic and non-programmatic approach.
Robert and Clara Schumann This talented duo were a husband and wife team who had 8 children! Clara was the most important woman pianist of her generation and was also a talented composer - her Three Romances for Violin and Piano are extremely lyrical, containing the kind of soaring melodies typical of the Romantic period. Her husband Robert is particularly known for his song cycles - a group of songs which tell a story. Dichterliebe and Frauenliebe Und-Leben are great examples of this style, and could be compared and contrasted with modern love songs by your older KS2 pupils
Piotr Illych Tchaikovsky This Russian composer is particularly famous for his ballets, and The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty are still regularly performed by ballet companies all over the world today. Although he hid the fact during his lifetime, it is now known that Tchaikovsky was a member of the LGBT community, the pressure of concealing which caused him to suffer bouts of depression throughout his lifetime. His Nutcracker ballet contains music inspired by lots of different countries including Russia, China, and Spain, and you could listen to these with your class and discuss why the music ‘sounds’ like it came from that country, opening up a discussion about musical style. With EYFS you might like to make your own Nutcracker and Sugar Plum Fairy puppets and dance along in time to the pulse of the music.
Giuseppe Verdi An Italian composer most famous for Opera, the works of Guiseppe Verdi have transcended classical music and become part of popular culture. The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaces from Nabucco, La Donna e Mobile from Rigoletto and The Drinking Song from La Traviata are all instantly recognisable. With older KS2 children you could have useful discussions about what makes a catchy tune, and have a go at creating your own memorable melody.
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Making Musi Complexity: One way we can show progress in music is to tackle harder and more complex tasks. This is probably the first type of progress that we think of, thanks to the long history of graded exams, where instrumental learners progress through harder and harder music until they come out victorious at Grade 8! There is definitely a case for including this type of progress in our progression map. We do want our pupils to take on new challenges as they move through the school and there is no denying the motivational buzz created by tackling and conquering a more challenging task. However, we need to carefully structure this progression so that each new challenge is achievable, otherwise this can have the opposite than intended effect on motivation!
Breadth:
Another important facet of musical progress is breadth - applying our skills to a makes us more rounded musicians, helps us develop our own creative style, and other cultures. When planning for musical progress therefore, we should be loo skills and try out our creative ideas in a range of different contexts. This doesn instead embarking upon a carefully constructed journey along a series of linked
ical Progress Depth: As with any art form, depth of progress is perhaps the most important factor to consider. We want our pupils to become more musical, to become fluent in singing and playing, to carry out simple tasks with a high level of artistry. All of this is achieved through depth of progress. We need to provide pupils with frequent opportunities to practise their musical skills, including work on listening skills (both technical and analytical), so that they become more confident, fluent, and instinctive during their music-making. It is of more value for a pupil to perform a simple piece with a high level of artistry than it is for them to perform a more complex one in an unmusical way.
and gaining knowledge of a range of musical styles. This is important because it d also has the extra musical benefit of developing our awareness of and respect for oking at how we can make connections across a range of musical styles to test our n’t just mean taking a whistlestop tour of many different musical traditions, but paths which will broaden our musical understanding.
Focus on Whole Class Instrumental Interview with Kay Charlton, author and
whole class instrumental teacher.
Q: Why is whole class instrumental teaching important? If done well, this kind of teaching can be incredibly effective - it could be the first, or the only, opportunity a child gets to learn an instrument. It increases access to music - specifically instrumental learning, and is inclusive - everyone gets to have a go.
Q: What can WCET bring to the classroom that “ordinary” curriculum lessons don’t? Imagine being aged 7 or 8 and being given a big shiny instrument to play (I’m a brass player…), what an opportunity! Learning music through playing an instrument is hands-on, giving children the opportunity to play together, improvise, compose and perform on an instrument. Hopefully, many children will be inspired to continue with their instrument and will progress on to playing with school or Music Hub ensembles, and potentially, beyond.
Q: What are your top tips for designing whole class projects? Where do you want your pupils to be by the end of their programme of WCET lessons? Planning is crucial, consider the following:
What do you want your pupils to have learnt by the end of the year and how do you get there?
Plan for your short-term/long-term goals and outcomes.
How will you ensure there is musical progression?
And how will you know that your pupils are making progress?
Q: What are the best instruments for nonspecialists to use?
Well, tuned percussion is always an easy win playing
technique
the is
straightforward and the sound is easy to produce. Whatever instrument you
teach
-
be
aware
of
musicality, playing with expression and using the inter-related
dimensions
of music creatively.
Q: What content should every WCET programme include? Be creative, and teach music musically! In a large group where children may not be able to practise between lessons, technique and an excellent tone probably won’t be easy outcomes, but you can still make fantastic music. As soon as your pupils can make a sound, be creative; include improvisation and composition in your lessons as well as learning repertoire that is relevant and enjoyable.
Q: Do you have an ultimate aim for WCET programmes? That children are inspired to carry on with their instrument. Continuation is the ultimate aim, so make sure you are aware of where to sign-post children to once they have finished the programme.
Kay Charlton’s book How to Teach Whole-Class Instrumental Lessons: 50 Inspiring Ideas is available now from Collins Music https://collins.co.uk/ products/9780008412913
Music of the Caribbean Ideas and inspiration for exploring some popular musical traditions of the Caribbean islands with your class
TRINIDAD Calypso music originated in Trinidad, born out of the Kaiso music of West African slaves - a form of music where a leader called a ‘griot’ or ‘chantwell’ told stories through song.
Calypso music originally used lyrics to discuss the most important issues of the day, such as politics and societal problems. Calypso singers (Calypsonians) saw themselves as representatives of the people, who challenged the status quo and tried to make a difference to ordinary people’s lives. This might be why they often gave themselves fanciful names like ‘Growling Tiger’ or ‘Mighty Sparrow.’ At one time calypso songs were the islanders’ primary and most trusted source of news. Musically, Calypso is usually in 4/4 time, and uses syncopated rhythms alongside simple harmonies, within a verse and chorus structure. A great (and feminist!) example to share with your class would be Calypso Queen by Calpso Rose, the first woman to win Trinidad’s prestigious Calypso Monarch competition.
The golden age of Calypso was in the 1920s-30s when the first calypso recordings were produced, and then after the war this music spread across the world as Trinidadians migrated to other countries to fill the worker shortage. With your KS2 children you could use calypso music to have an interesting discussion about race, by comparing two songs by Lord Kitchener who arrived in London in 1948. ‘London is the place for me’ was sung as he disembarked and is full of positivity, but ‘If you’re brown’ was written after he had encountered the racial prejudice there. It would also be interesting to compare the different instrumentation of each song, with the later one clearly influenced by the mainstream jazz and big band styles that Lord Kitchener would have heard while in the UK
CUBA Salsa music was actually invented by Cuban immigrant communities in New York in the 1960s, but finds its roots in the son Cubano musical style from eastern Cuba.
Salsa music is most heavily influenced by son Cubano - an Afro-Cuban style. This style fuses European and African music with the melodic aspect coming from Spanish music, and the rhythmic aspect from the Bantu region of central Africa. Listen to Chan Chan by Buena Vista Social Club with your class for an example of this style. Salsa is a form of dance music which has strong use of rhythm, including lots of syncopation. The music is usually made up of repeated one or two bar patterns each played on a different instrument, and utlises many Latin percussion instruments including bongos, congas, claves, cowbells and timbales. The piano is also often used and there is usually a horn section as well. Unusually for such happy, bouncy music, it is often in a minor key, which could prompt an interesting discussion about tonality with your pupils debugging the Major/Happy Minor/Sad myth! With your class you could build up a salsa band using your classroom percussion instruments to play some of the traditional salsa rhythms (which can easily be found all over the internet!) You could also invent your own call and response vocals to go over the top, which is another common
feature of salsa music. For Salsa listening inspiration try Celia Cruz, Hector Lavoe or Ruben Blades and for a truly authentic experience you could even try learning some salsa dance moves. This tutorial from Strictly Come Dancing’s Janette Manrara can get you prepared to teach some salsa moves to your class!
JAMAICA Jamaica is responsible for a plethora of musical styles which have become famous all across the world.
In the 1950s, a form of Jamaican folk music similar to calypso became extremely popular. Mento was a precurser to ska and reggae music which are still popular styles today.
Ska is a form of fast dance music which was first invented at the end of the 1950s from a fusion of rhythm & blues (R&B) with mento rhythms, usually using electric guitars and a horn section, and characterised by off beat
rhythms. A classic example is A Message to you Rudy by The Specials.
Rocksteady emerged in the 1960s and was a form of dance music with more relaxed rhythms than ska, and emphasis on beats 2 and 4 of each bar, an example of which can be found in the song You can get it if you really want by Desmond Dekker.
Slower still than Rocksteady was Reggae which also became popular in the 1960s. This form of music is associated with Rastafarianism, and often has political themes in its lyrics. Musically, there are usually guitar riffs and use of dub remixing where effects are added, underpinned by a reggae rhythm which emphasises missing beats. One Love by Bob Marley is probably the
most famous example of this style.
Discussing these different styles with your class can help them to understand how music evolves over time, and could make the basis of an interesting KS2 ‘history of music’ project.
This taught course comprises three half-day webinars across the course of a term. These will be supported with access to online learning materials, and challenges, ideas and activities to try out in the classroom, culminating in a short assignment. On completion of the assignment participants will be awarded with the Music Education Solutions® Primary Music Leadership Certificate. Session 1: Leading Music in your school In this session we look at how to motivate, inspire and support staff to teach music with confidence, how to manage an extra-curricular programme, and how to address differentiation including for SEND pupils. Session 2: Planning & Assessing Music in your school In this session we look at how to create pedagogically-sound schemes of work and lesson plans, how to satisfy an Ofsted Deep-Dive, and the resources and
software available to help deliver the national curriculum for music. Session 3: Delivering music in your school In this session we look at activity and resource ideas to help you deliver performing, listening, composing and improvising activities in the classroom.
Spring dates for 2022: 17th January, 14th February, 14th March Summer dates for 2022: 6th May, 10th June, 8th July
_________________________________________________________ Price: £150 per person
Further information & booking HERE
Delivering the Curriculum through music Dr Liz Stafford reviews Out of the Ark’s latest resource This latest offering from Out of the Ark is designed to support learning in English and Maths through song. The theory behind the Curriculum Crunchers series is that singing about core concepts will help embed that information, and this resource certainly offers an engaging way to learn about grammar and numbers which is sure to spice up your English and Maths lessons!
As one would expect from Out of the Ark these songs are of the absolute banger variety, and your classes will love them. From the short and funky Latin-inspired Perimeter-ter-ter song, to the more extensive Formal and Informal Language song which cleverly juxtaposes different musical styles as a metaphor for different styles of language, there is most definitely something for everyone.
I think what I like most about these songs, in common with all of Out of the Ark’s offerings, is that they are demonstrated in a healthy, natural singing technique, without any of the pop-style affectation that you hear in a lot of children’s songs. This means they are going to help your children sing better as well as learn about verbs and times tables!
You can find out more about the Curriculum Crunchers series here: www.outoftheark.co.uk/series/curriculum-crunchers/
brought to you by Music Education Solutions Grove House, Coombs Wood Court, Steelpark Road, Halesowen, B62 8BF. Company Registered in England 06624386
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